ENGS 7.08: Energy Sustainability: Technologies and Impact

At first glance it can be difficult to determine whether a source is credible in its claims. There is a lot of flashy design or quality structure of writing that is used to hide dubious claims. But there are also different types of authority that inform the credibility of a source. A healthy skepticism of any source will allow you to make stronger arguments in your writing if you are able to substantiate any claims you make.

When evaluating any source it can be helpful to answer the following questions:

1. Who is the intended audience?

2. What authority does the author have to write on the topic covered? Is the author a freelance writer? A practitioner? A scholar?

3. What is the author's point of view (or of the publication as a whole)?

4. Who produced the material and why are they publishing this information?

5. Who funded this piece of work?

6. When was this written?

7. What are the key claims made? What evidence supports those claims?

Though it may seem like a lengthy task, as you practice evaluating the information presented to you the task becomes automatic.

We often encounter writing that intended to cause an emotional response. Whether that is a click-bait title or a claim that is partially true and easily repeatable, it's good to take a moment to pause and check the information. An easy method to use is SIFT:

• Stop: Pause to think about the information critically.
• Investigate the source: Investigate when the information was created, who the information was created by and why it was created.
• Find better coverage: Identify additional resources that cover the same area to see if there is a consensus.
• Trace claims, quotes, and media to the original context: If claims are cited, look into the original source and repeat the SIFT process. If there is no attribution in the original source, this is a red flag. You should investigate more deeply to see if a claim has any basis.

Sometimes developing a research question can be overwhelming. Starting with broad inquiry can be incredibly helpful. If the professor has supplied a theme, use that theme as a starting point to answer these questions:

• What is interesting to you?
• What do you already know
• What claims are "common" about the topic? Do you know if these claims are backed up with evidence

After your settle on a general topic, ask a lot of questions.

• Make a list of open ended “how” and “why” questions
• Pick a question with a good hook: Why this topic is important or interesting?
• What are the arguments and claims around this topic?
• Does your questions add to the conversation?

The best questions are:

• Clear & Concise: State the question in the fewest possible words, but make sure it remains understandable to your audience.
• Complex: Don't settle on a 'yes' or 'no' question. You want something that will require synthesis
• Focused & Arguable: Select a question that you can answer in the amount of time you have to do the research, and that you can summarize in the amount of space you have to write. Your question should have an evidence base to back up your arguement.

My tentative question is: What does the green energy transition look like in the US? 

While this might be a good place to start, it is also relatively broad. I might ask my professor or a librarian ways to narrow it effectively to meet the scope of my project.

Once you have a question, think about efficient ways to search for information. I like to start with a search table:

I'm going to select Web of Science for my search, because it is a database of scholarly works, related to engineering.

If I were to translate this search into Web of Science it would look like this:

In Web of Science you can select which field of the item you would like to search for these words in. Play with the options and see what results are best for you! My top choices are usually Topic, Title, and Abstract–depending on the combination you select (you can select a field for each line) you could get many results or very few!